Who We Are

Changing Georgia Policy, Changing Georgians’ Lives – Since 1991

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, nonpartisan research institute.

Our mission is to improve the lives of Georgians through public policies that enhance economic opportunity and freedom.

We believe good public policy is based upon fact, an understanding of sound economic principles and the core principles of our free enterprise system – economic freedom, limited government, personal responsibility, individual initiative, respect for private property and the rule of law.

Since 1991, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation has conducted scholarly research and analysis of state public policy issues and worked to educate citizens, policy-makers and the media. The Foundation is state-focused, independent, non-partisan and market-oriented in its approach.

The Foundation hosts more than a dozen events each year throughout the state that allow members to meet and discuss issues with political, education, media and business leaders. Past speakers include the President of the United States, U.S. Speaker of the House, Supreme Court Justices, U.S. senators, representatives, presidential candidates, ambassadors, state officials, governors, members of the national media and area business leaders.

Our Impact

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has championed ideas and public policies that have changed lives in Georgia for 25 years.

Education

Higher Standards – we helped lead the effort to dramatically increase Georgia’s K-12 standards in 2004 putting Georgia in the top ten according to several rankings

Charter Schools – we helped create Georgia’s first startup charter school law in 1996 and later improvements, we created a Charter School Resource Center to help communities start charter schools, and we actually started our own math- and science-focused charter school, Tech High

School Choice – Georgia is one of a handful of states with charter schools, special needs scholarships, tuition tax credit scholarships, and a wide array of online options – all initiatives of the Foundation

Digital Learning – Georgia was recently ranked among the top ten states in digital learning

We created “No Excuses” schools to highlight high-achieving, high-poverty schools

We were one of the first states in the nation to publish a report card, the Foundation’s “Education Report Card For Parents” – today nearly every state publishes a report card

Taxes

Low Taxes – Georgia’s tax burden remains well below the national average

Elimination of the Georgia Intangibles Tax

Elimination of the Sales Tax on Energy Used in Manufacturing, Mining and Agriculture

Elimination of the Georgia estate tax

Adoption of a single sales allocation factor for the corporate income tax

Regulation/Property Rights

One of the strongest laws in the nation protecting against eminent domain abuse

Civil Service Reforms impacting every state employee hired after 1996

Telecommunications deregulations that has led to a thriving telecom market

Elimination of burdensome professional licensing regulations

Regulatory cost/benefit analysis for small businesses

One of the few states in the nation to shift state employees to a hybrid pension plan, moving away from a pure defined benefit plan

Health Care

Georgia is a leader in implementing Consumer-Driven Health Care Reforms such as health savings accounts, wellness incentives, cost and quality data and defined contribution plans for small businesses

Georgia removed the state health care tax penalty by eliminating state income taxes on high-deductible premiums

Criminal Justice

The Foundation was a leader in the sweeping criminal justice reforms passed in 2012 and thereafter, which have become a national model with more than 20 states and the federal government following our lead

Government Spending

The Foundation has championed government transparency, leading to the creation of a state transparency database and disclosure of in-depth system- and school-level spending

Georgia is a leader in privatization of golf courses, water parks, hotels and conference centers, tourist attractions, prisons and many other government functions

The Foundation supported the City of Sandy Springs as it became one of the nation’s first “private cities” by outsourcing nearly all government functions

Who We Are

Kyle Wingfield

Kyle B. Wingfield is a native of Dalton, Ga., and a graduate of the University of Georgia. He was a columnist at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before joining the Foundation in April 2018.

Kyle Wingfield

Kyle Wingfield is a native of Dalton and graduate of the University of Georgia. He joined the Foundation as president and CEO in April 2018 after spending nine years as an opinion columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has also worked for the Wall Street Journal, based in Brussels, Belgium, from 2004 to 2009, and for the Associated Press, based in Atlanta and Montgomery, Ala., from 2001 to 2004.

At the AJC, Kyle wrote often about state politics and policy, focusing especially on education and school choice, transportation, health care, and state and local taxation. He is a frequent guest on GPB’s “Political Rewind” show and was a finalist for the Reason Foundation’s Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2013. Kyle’s weekly column continues to appear in 10 newspapers around the state.

Kyle received the UGA Grady College’s John E. Drewry Young Alumnus Award in 2006, was named to the UGA Alumni Association’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2012 and is a member of UGA’s Board of Visitors. He is a member of Leadership Georgia’s Class of 2018 and, as an Eagle Scout, remains an active volunteer in Scouting.

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Benita M. Dodd / Vice President

Benita Dodd is a journalism graduate of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, who immigrated to the United States in 1986. She was an editorial writer and columnist at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before joining the Foundation in March 2003.

Benita M. Dodd / Vice President

Benita Dodd is a journalism graduate of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, who immigrated to the United States in 1986. The Cobb County resident was an editorial writer and columnist for The Atlanta Journal Editorial Board and an editorial writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Editorial Board before joining the Georgia Public Policy Foundation as vice president in March 2003. She leads the Foundation’s Environmental Initiative and is responsible for the Foundation’s communications. She is a member of the 2007 class of Leadership Georgia, a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s Leadership Network (class of 2015), and a faculty member of the Leadership Institute of Virginia. She serves on the Political Science Advisory Board at Kennesaw State University, on the Board of Advisors for America’s Future Foundation Georgia and on the Board of Governors for the Georgia Charter Schools Association, and is a Policy Advisor for the Heartland Institute. She also served on the Board of Common Cause Georgia. She addresses civic and leadership groups across Georgia on current issues and free-market solutions. She is a frequent contributor to newspapers, television and radio programs around the state, spent seven years providing free-market perspectives as a commentator on a weekly Atlanta Radio Korea program, and appears regularly on Current NewPo, an online video newstalk program for the News and Post Korean-American news service.

Senior Fellows

Ron Bachman

Ron Bachman

Dr. Harold Brown

Dr. Harold Brown

Harold Brown is professor emeritus of Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia and author of, “The Greening of Georgia: The Improvement of the Environment in the Twentieth Century.” He is the author of over 120 refereed journal articles and 12 book hapters.

The project aims to promote solvent, sustainable retirement systems that provide retirement security for government workers while reducing taxpayer and pension system exposure to financial risk and reducing long-term costs for employers/taxpayers and employees. The project team provides education, reform policy options, and actuarial analysis for policymakers and stakeholders to help them design reform proposals that are practical and viable.

In 2016 and 2017, Reason’s Pension Integrity Project helped design, negotiate and draft pension reforms for the state of Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System and Corrections Officer Retirement Plan, which both passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the state legislature and were signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey.

Gilroy is also the Director of Government Reform at Reason Foundation, researching privatization, public-private partnerships, infrastructure and urban policy issues.

Gilroy has a diversified background in policy research and implementation, with particular emphases on competition, government efficiency, transparency, accountability, and government performance. Gilroy has worked closely with legislators and elected officials in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, New Jersey, Utah, Virginia, California and several other states and local governments in efforts to design and implement market-based policy approaches, improve government performance, enhance accountability in government programs, and reduce government spending.

In 2010 and 2011, Gilroy served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Arizona Commission on Privatization and Efficiency, and in 2010 he served as an advisor to the New Jersey Privatization Task Force, created by Gov. Chris Christie.

Gilroy is the editor of the widely-read Annual Privatization Report, which examines trends and chronicles the experiences of local, state, and federal governments in bringing competition to public services. Gilroy also edits Reason’s Innovators in Action interview series, which profiles public sector innovators in their own words, including former U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani and more.

Gilroy’s articles have been featured in such leading publications as The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Washington Times, Houston Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arizona Republic, San Francisco Examiner, San Diego Union-Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sacramento Bee and The Salt Lake Tribune. He has also appeared on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business, CNBC, National Public Radio and other media outlets.

Prior to joining Reason, Gilroy was a senior planner at a Louisiana-based urban planning consulting firm. He also worked as a research assistant at the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech. Gilroy earned a B.A. and M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech.

Dr. John Goodman

Dr. John Goodman

John C. Goodman is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on health policy. The Wall Street Journal calls Dr. Goodman “the father of Health Savings Accounts.” Modern Healthcare says he is one of four people who have most influenced the changes shaping our health care system.

Dr. Goodman is the author of nine books, including Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis; Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws (with Kimberley Strassel); and Patient Power (with Gerald Musgrave), the condensed version of which sold more than 300,000 copies and is credited with playing a pivotal role in the defeat of Hillary Clinton’s health reform.

He has authored numerous editorials in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, Los Angeles Times, and many others.

Dr. Goodman regularly appears on television, including CNN, CNBC and the Fox News Channel. He appeared on many William F. Buckley Jr. Firing Line shows, and was Mr. Buckley’s debating partner on a number of two-hour prime time debates – including such topics as the flat tax, welfare reform and Social Security privatization.

He regularly briefs members of Congress on economic policy and frequently testifies before congressional committees. He is author or co-author of more than 50 published studies on such topics as health policy, tax reform and school choice. Dr. Goodman has an active speaking schedule and has addressed more than 100 different organizations on public policy issues.

Dr. Goodman received a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. He has taught and done research at Columbia University, Stanford University, Dartmouth University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas.

He received the prestigious Duncan Black award in 1988 for the best scholarly article on public choice economics.

Ross Mason

Ross Mason

Jim Kelly

Jim Kelly

Nina Schaefer

Nina Schaefer

Bob Poole

Bob Poole

Dr. Benjamin Scafidi

Dr. Benjamin Scafidi

Dr. Benjamin Scafidi is director of the Education Economics Center in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University and a Senior Fellow with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and the Friedman Foundation.

Previously, he was a professor of economics and director of the Economics of Education Policy Center at Georgia College & State University and director of education policy for the Georgia Community Foundation Inc., where his research focused on education and urban policy.

He was chair of the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, education policy advisor to Gov. Sonny Perdue, on the staff of both of Gov. Roy Barnes’ Education Reform Study Commissions, and an expert witness for the state of Georgia in school funding litigation. The Cobb County resident received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia and his B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Frank Stephenson

Dr. Frank Stephenson

Dr. Christine Ries

Dr. Christine Ries

Christine P. Ries is Professor of Economics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph. D. in International Business Economics at the University of Chicago and has held faculty positions in Global Corporate Finance at The Harvard Business School, The Fuqua Business School at Duke University, The Peter Drucker Graduate Management Center and the Claremont Graduate University, and Stanford University.Dr. Ries studies and teaches principles of free markets economics and their application in corporate decision making and the creation of economic value for companies and countries. She has worked on problems in global corporate finance for companies and banks such as Morgan Guaranty, CitiCorp, Barclays, Chase Manhattan Bank, IBM, and Lucky Goldstar Group. This work tied together foreign exchange risk management, corporate decisions, strategy and corporate value. She has addressed corporate political risk in assessing how corporate strategies predict and respond to shifts in government trade, commercial and capital controls policies. For governments, especially in emerging market countries, she has advised how tax, regulation and capital control policies and laws will alter the relative competitiveness of the country and attract or repel the interests of foreign investors.

After being appointed to the Special Council for Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians in 2010, Dr. Ries focused her expertise on the problem of tax structure and economic growth in Georgia. On the Council, she organized and promoted private sector teams from mining, manufacturing and agricultural industries to streamline and rationalize Georgia’s tax code describing sales tax exemptions for business.

Baruch Feigenbaum

Baruch Feigenbaum

Dr. Eric Wearne

Dr. Eric Wearne

Eric Wearne is an assistant professor in the School of Education at Georgia Gwinnett College, and teaches undergraduate courses on assessment. He is a founding board member at Latin Academy Charter School, a startup middle school in Atlanta, and has helped found a hybrid homeschool/private high school, St. John Bosco Academy. Prior to joining the faculty at GGC, Eric served as Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, where he helped design and conduct Georgia’s first statewide standardized testing audit, managed the publication of the state’s annual report card, and worked on several Georgia-specific research projects in education policy. His work has been published by the Journal of School Choice, the Cato Institute, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among others. He began his career as a high school English teacher at Duluth High School in Gwinnett County.

Dr. Jeffrey H. Dorfman

Dr. Jeffrey H. Dorfman

Jeffrey Dorfman is an economist and professor at The University of Georgia, where he has been since 1989. He teaches classes in economic theory, the economics of the food industry, and macroeconomic theory and policy. He performs research mostly on productivity measurement, economic forecasting, and the economics of growth and sprawl. He has authored three books, over seventy academic journal articles, and a variety of other articles published in trade publications, the popular press, and on the web. He writes regular opinion columns for RealClearMarkets.com and Forbes. In 2013, he was elected as a Fellow by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. He has testified to the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, to the Georgia Senate Special Committee on Feedgrains, and to a USDA Panel on Farmland Preservation. He served as editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the top academic outlet for his field, from 2009-2012. He is a consultant to a variety of businesses, foundations, and local governments with past and current clients including Sprint, the American Farmland Trust, Pennington Seed, Fulton County Schools, and numerous city and county governments in the Southeastern U.S. He is married, with one daughter, and they attend Central Presbyterian Church where he serves as treasurer.

Kelly McCutchen

Kelly McCutchen

Kelly McCutchen is a native of Ellijay, Georgia, and a graduate of Georgia Tech. He was Assistant Vice President in the Trust Department of Trust Company Bank in Atlanta before joining the Foundation in 1993. He served as President and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation from 2010 until December 2017, when he moved on to become executive director of HINRI.org. He continues to serve the Foundation as a Senior Fellow.

Kelly writes on education, tax, health care and economic policy. At the Foundation, he helped create the Civic Renewal Project that highlights the work of outstanding community-based organizations, the “No Excuses” program to recognize and study high achieving, high poverty public schools, and award-winning statewide report cards on education, crime and taxes.

He has served on the boards of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Leadership Georgia and the Conservative Policy Leadership Institute and was a founder and Governing Board Chair of Tech High, a math, science and technology-focused public charter school in Atlanta. He co-founded the Georgia Warrior Alliance, a nonprofit with the mission to make Georgia the national Leader in programs supporting military veterans and their families. He currently serves on the board of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and chairs the board of the Healthcare Institute for Neuro-Recovery and Innovation. He serves on the Education Policy Committee and the Health Care Policy Committee for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Science and Technology Executive Committee, the Public Policy Committee for the Metro Atlanta United Way and is a policy advisor for the Technology Association of Georgia.

The Foundation should take a lot of pride in your influence on Georgia governmental policy over the past several years. If you look back on several things that you were crying in the wilderness about several years ago, you will find that Governor Miller adopted them…your influence and your pressure on that process has been a major factor in governmental policy in Georgia. You should be congratulated.